Text input devices have been used since Gutenberg's invention of moveable type. With the invention of typewriters, average people could produce documents that appeared printed. The typewriter interface, namely in the form of the QWERTY keyboard has since been used as the main form of communication with a computer. However, not all computing devices have a keyboard. For example, gaming systems are often only equipped with a gaming controller. Even if a keyboard is provided on a small computing device, size restrictions may make the keyboard difficult to use. Keyboard-free methods to input text are often time-consuming and clumsy. For example, gaming systems sometimes include the capacity to scroll through the alphabet to choose a letter. Typing in a single word can be quite time-consuming. Other systems provide a virtual keyboard. To use, the user must point to and select each letter that is typed. Again, this is too clumsy to use for any but the most limited text input. Other methods, such as chording, have been proposed. Chording requires pressing multiple buttons simultaneously. Aside from the problem that most game controllers do not accept chording input, this type of input tends to be counterintuitive and difficult to use.
Thus, there is a need for systems and methods to input character information without using a standard keyboard.